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Title: Freeze-in production of sterile neutrino dark matter in U(1){sub B−L} model

Journal Article · · Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
;  [1]
  1. Harish-Chandra Research Institute,Chhatnag Road, Jhunsi, Allahabad 211 019 (India)

With the advent of new and more sensitive direct detection experiments, scope for a thermal WIMP explanation of dark matter (DM) has become extremely constricted. The non-observation of thermal WIMP in these experiments has put a strong upper bound on WIMP-nucleon scattering cross section and within a few years it is likely to overlap with the coherent neutrino-nucleon cross section. Hence in all probability, DM may have some non-thermal origin. In this work we explore in detail this possibility of a non-thermal sterile neutrino DM within the framework of U(1){sub B−L} model. The U(1){sub B−L} model on the other hand is a well-motivated and minimal way of extending the standard model so that it can explain the neutrino masses via Type-I see-saw mechanism. We have shown, besides explaining the neutrino mass, it can also accommodate a non-thermal sterile neutrino DM with correct relic density. In contrast with the existing literature, we have found that W{sup ±} decay can also be a dominant production mode of the sterile neutrino DM. To obtain the comoving number density of dark matter, we have solved here a coupled set of Boltzmann equations considering all possible decay as well as annihilation production modes of the sterile neutrino dark matter. The framework developed here though has been done for a U(1){sub B−L} model, can be applied quite generally for any models with an extra neutral gauge boson and a fermionic non-thermal dark matter.

Sponsoring Organization:
SCOAP3, CERN, Geneva (Switzerland)
OSTI ID:
22572157
Journal Information:
Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, Vol. 2016, Issue 09; Other Information: PUBLISHER-ID: JCAP09(2016)044; OAI: oai:repo.scoap3.org:17320; cc-by Article funded by SCOAP3. Content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI.; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 1475-7516
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English